Find what a Church Father said about a topic

I am trying to write a paper tracing the historical development of a particular topic through a few time periods (ante-nicea, post-nicea, middle ages, etc ). How would I search to find what was said during these time periods? OR if I picked out a person in that period, could I search on what he said about the topic?

I have created a church history collection, but can't figure out what to do next.

Examples of what I think would like to search for:

- What was said about justification during 0-325 AD

- What was said about justification during 325-800 AD

- What did Origen say about justification

- What did Athanasius say about justification

- What did Augustine say about justification

-etc.

Or If I am thinking about this wrong I am open to other options.

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Comments

Bruce Dunning

Welcome to the forums Jeremy.

Your question is fairly broad in nature but let me try to suggest how I would begin to approach the topic. I think that I would start with a specific book on the history of theology like Shedd's 2 volume work called "The History of Christian Doctrines" - https://www.logos.com/product/6257/a-history-of-christian-doctrine This is just one example.

From there I think I would check out systematic theologies where I believe you should find historical references to the development of theology.

Don't forget to use Factbook as it is often a simple path to a topic.

I'm sure that there will be other suggestions but I hope what I've suggested might be of some help.

Jeremy

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1200681#Comment_1200681

Thanks Bruce!

I did find a similar resource from another thread (https://www.logos.com/product/137138/a-dictionary-of-early-christian-beliefs).

This might be what I needed, just a good resource rather than trying to do difficult searching.

Thanks for the suggestions!

Pater Noster

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1200685#Comment_1200685

Hi Jeremy, if you have Verbum vs. Logos, there are some built in tools that facilitate research on Early Church Fathers. Here is one example, I ran a topic guide on "Justification" as that was one of your topics, and it shows a section "Catholic Topical Index" with some good ECF entries. Even if you don't have Verbum, maybe this will give you some resources to start with?

Also, as you can see in this first screen shot it says "See also Sanctification", I ran that one too, it's the second screen shot. You could go on and on, as you can see that one says to see "Holiness". It seems like a good way to rummage around and see what those writers had to say.

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1200685#Comment_1200685

There are two standard reference books of excerpts of the Church Fathers by topic in Logos

Bercot, David W., ed. A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs: A Reference Guide to More than 700 Topics Discussed by the Early Church Fathers. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1998.:
Jurgens, W. A., trans. The Faith of the Early Fathers. Vol. 1–3. Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1970–1979.

There is the Catholic Topical section with its documentation:

Jones, Andrew, Robert Klesko, Louis St. Hilaire, and Jason Stellman, eds. Catholic Topical Index. Bellingham, WA: Verbum, 2013.:
Husser, Lydia. Catholic Topical Index: Dataset Documentation. Bellingham, WA: Faithlife, 2017.

Then there are individual volumes on particular topics such as:

Thomas Aquinas. Catena Aurea: Commentary on the Four Gospels, Collected out of the Works of the Fathers: St. Matthew. Edited by John Henry Newman. Vol. 1. Oxford: John Henry Parker, 1841.
Johnson, Lawrence J. Worship in the Early Church: An Anthology of Historical Sources. Vol. 1. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2009.
Neale, J. M. A Commentary on the Psalms from Primitive and Mediæval Writers: Psalm 1 to Psalm 38. Second Edition. Vol. 1. London; New York: Joseph Masters; Pott and Amery, 1869.

DMB

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1200687#Comment_1200687

Here's a sample of Bercot, the topic justification > salvation. Each topic begins with the NT authors, then procedes chronologically thru the fathers:

DAL

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1200708#Comment_1200708

DMB, this might be one of your “Many students” but this time under an actual different name 😁

DMB

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1200710#Comment_1200710

DMB, this might be one of your “Many students” but this time under an actual different name 😁

Well, I assigned Paul Drake to the case (Perry Mason; early 60s). From what he's found so far, the fingerprints just don't match. Protestants and more specifically evangels, typically view the father's periods as never-happened, and the Middle Ages as 'when?'. So, I think we're looking at a great question ... one I struggled with for years ... too embarrassed to just ask MJ!

Jeremy

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1200687#Comment_1200687

Thank You! I purchased that first book you referenced and it has a lot of good info in it and it links to some other resources I have. I should have enough info now!

Dave Moser

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/1200687#Comment_1200687

How does Verbum's Catholic Topical Index compare to the other similar resources like Bercot's Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs in terms of depth and breadth?